Ángel Barco Sanz (1927 - 1989)
The life and work of Àngel Barco Sanz (1927 - 1989)
Link to sample graphic work: Graphic work
The Soviet Government, at all times, took care of their well-being and safety, and evacuated them to safe places and always far away from the front. They received absolutely privileged treatment compared to the majority of the population of the Soviet Union. Some of these “Children”, the most adults, voluntarily joined the ranks of the Red Army to fight the same enemy that was already in power in Spain. My father and his sister, still too young, did not suffer the rigors of the front (although they had to go through many vicissitudes) and were able to finish the planned educational cycle. But once the Second World War was over, returning to Spain, although materially possible, was still very complicated and risky. Some of those “Children”, a few, returned in subsequent years. For example, four of them were on board the ship “Semiramis”, which returned, in April 1954, to the port of Barcelona, the surviving prisoners of the “Blue Division” and other groups of Spaniards who for different reasons were in the Union. Soviet. Those were the first, but later, and little by little, and little by little, other “Children of War” also returned.
The young couple's intention was to live as another Soviet family (it was what was then called a "socialist marriage"). The lack of diplomatic relations between Spain and their new homeland and the uncertainty about the treatment they could receive if they set foot on the Iberian Peninsula seemed to make a possible return completely impossible, and in any case, things were not going badly for them, at least from the perspective that they had then. Both had well-paid jobs (always within existing parameters: the official Soviet “philosophy” was that, to achieve equality among all citizens, salaries could not be too different, regardless of the work performed), stable and insurance. And the ties with Spain, over time, were becoming weaker and weaker, they had spent their entire lives in Moscow. They had two children ten years apart: my brother Antoni, (1956 – 2014) and myself, in 1966. But, even before I was born, something happened that changed the course of his life and naturally, that of his family. Ángel, Nina and Antoni managed to go on vacation (by train) to Spain in the summer of 1965. Ángel was reunited with his family, who had settled in Barcelona, which, evidently, moved him very much, and he also found a very changed from what he could remember, but still, what he saw made him feel like he was where he really belonged and where he wanted to live. The sun, the light, the climate, the people, the food, the customs, the language... it was something unique, not to mention the artistic treasures of all kinds that existed in Spain, which he, a fanatical art lover, until then he had resigned himself to never being able to know directly. From that moment on he no longer stopped thinking about the idea of returning, although it represented a very radical change in his life and that of his family and a challenge towards which he felt a certain caution. However, on the part of the Soviet Government there was no bureaucratic difficulty in being able to leave. In fact, that same Government offered him the possibility of going to work in Cuba as an architect after Fidel Castro came to power, but he always refused. If he had to leave the Soviet Union, he would have to be in Spain. They went on holiday once again (also by train), in the winter of 1969/70, leaving me, then just over three years old, in Moscow in the care of my grandmother.
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| The Barco family in May 1969 |
The reasons for his hesitation can be understood. Although at that point there were no risks for his life, or possibilities of encountering legal problems, it had to be understood that neither his wife nor his two children had any other link with Spain than himself, and his adaptation and integration was a total uncertainty, especially in the case of Nina, who had lived her entire life within a system of values, and a political, social and cultural environment that could not be more different. Furthermore, Nina's mother, my maternal grandmother, who lived with us (Nina had been an only child and had lived with her mother all her life, widowed since she was young) could not accompany them, because at that time the concept of “family reunification”, and even less so between two countries like Spain and the Soviet Union, which still had not established diplomatic relations. On the other hand, Ángel had realized that, with a title like architect and his talent, he was literally wasting his life, work and talent in a place with a one hundred percent planned, centralized, state-controlled and rigidly regulated economy, and on the other hand, he had learned, with his own eyes, that some of those who had been “Children of War”, who had studied at the University in the Soviet Union, and who had already returned to Spain, had achieved great prosperity practicing his profession. Finally, he made the decision to go live in Spain in 1973, after thirty-five years in the Soviet Union. At that time, the International Red Cross was making the necessary arrangements so that people who had been forced to live far from their countries of origin due to the Second World War could return. The family traveled this time by plane (funded by the Red Cross; our properties (mainly books) packed in large wooden boxes, traveled by boat, losing some of them along the way), stopping in Paris, since at that time there were no direct flights to Spain. Since his closest relatives still lived in Barcelona, it was there where we settled.
Upon arrival, as expected and my father feared, the first procedure to overcome was the recognition that the newcomers constituted a family unit from a legal point of view. As expected, problems arise in legalizing their marriage. But it was achieved, and very soon Ángel found work in one of the most important architecture studios in Barcelona. They paid him a good salary, so the problem of the family's subsistence in Barcelona was resolved, but he immediately encountered a very serious bureaucratic problem that he had not counted on: in Spain his architectural degree obtained in the Soviet Union was not recognized, and therefore, he could not practice as an architect. He was forced to make a living as a draftsman, that is, putting on paper the ideas and designs of the architects for whom he worked. At that time, this work was still done exclusively by hand, and the quality of this work depended fundamentally on the draftsman's talent as a draftsman: the era of computers, architectural software, plotters and large format printers would still take almost two decades to arrive. after your arrival. As if that were not enough, as soon as we arrived, in October 1973, the Oil Crisis broke out, which immediately became a “Crisis” in general. The economy began to collapse, and unemployment figures “skyrocketed” to levels never known before. In the studio where my father worked, they had to make many layoffs to reduce expenses (around 90% of the staff), but it was never his turn, because his bosses, at all times, knew how to appreciate his great value, and they loved him. at his side. He also established ties of friendship with the "guild" of Barcelona architects, and everyone unanimously recognized that this man from Madrid who had come from Moscow was a true master in his demanding profession, but a master who could not work as an architect because the recognition of his degree did not arrive. And it meant enormous frustration for him because his plan to improve the quality of life of his family was not working. For nearly ten years, he lived in great anxiety, disappointed and helpless. Furthermore, as expected, Nina's adaptation to the Barcelona lifestyle was very slow and never completely successful, and she also had all the problems in the world to have her university degree recognized, so she had to settle for precarious jobs. The family had to go live in social housing because they could no longer afford to pay market-rate rent (prices that were constantly increasing), at that time all the money that came into the house came from the draftsman's salary. of the Angel. Her eldest son also caused her worries and disappointments. However, all these family problems and difficulties did not influence her artistic production; in fact, they represented an escape valve that prevented her from having her head constantly occupied with troubles. She continued painting and drawing during her leisure time and vacations as much or more than before. The destinations of his trips for pleasure were always places where he could find architectural and artistic treasures, and which he could afford to pay for: Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice), Paris, London, Vienna, Amsterdam, Switzerland and especially throughout Spain, which is not exactly lacking in places of great interest. He could not work as an architect, but he could fulfill another of his dreams that years ago seemed utopian: he could see with his own eyes, and paint and draw cities, architectural complexes and buildings which while he lived in the Soviet Union he could only see in photography. in encyclopedias and treatises. I can remember, for example, how exultant she was in Rome, in the summer of 1977, where she described, glossed and praised the monuments that are found at every step in the Eternal City.
In 1977 diplomatic relations between Spain and the Soviet Union were reestablished. This opened the possibility of recognition of Ángel's title as an architect, but at that time there was very little "rolling" in the world of bureaucracy to process documentation from distant countries (for example: the documents continued to "travel" in form of paper, by regular mail) and things went very slowly, to the point that it was suggested to him that perhaps he would end up getting his degree sooner if he re-examined all his subjects, like any other student. He has always refused, and continued to “battle” with all the means at his disposal, until in 1983 he was finally able to enroll in the College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC) and was able to begin practicing. By then he was already in his mid-fifties, his eldest son had already finished his own career as an architect, and I was about to start university (but I did not follow the family “tradition”).
It was only then, in the second half of the 1980s, when he was finally able to start living the way he had planned when he decided to return to Spain, and when he was finally able to verify that his talent was adequately rewarded, and his family I could finally achieve a level of well-being that I had always dreamed of. He was able to buy a spacious and comfortable (although too luxurious) home in a good residential neighborhood, with the fruits of his first fees as a registered architect. But, unfortunately, he had very little time to enjoy the new situation. Already at the beginning of 1989 he began to feel unwell, and since the spring of that year he was no longer able to work. He was still able to paint a few more watercolors that summer, but he could no longer travel, and he died at his home in October 1989.
Ángel Barco's artistic production was extraordinarily broad, and prodigiously prolific. He painted and drew, always for pure pleasure and personal enjoyment, in any free time, on weekdays, on weekends, and especially during vacations (it was very common for him to get up very early in the morning, before the rest of the people. the family, to take advantage of the light and finish some painting or drawing before breakfast). Every work he started, he finished that same day, rarely in more than an hour. They were always small or medium format paintings, from DIN A2 to DIN A4 in size. Throughout his life he created literally thousands of works on paper: mainly watercolors and drawings (in pencil, charcoal, pastel, marker or pen), but also pastel painting and gouache or tempera. He never painted in oils because it required a longer preparation, required relatively expensive fabrics, and furthermore, the creative process could not be carried out inside a home due to its strong smell. The motifs of his most successful works would always have to do with architecture, urban planning, or art: streets, facades, arches, towers, squares, architectural complexes, but he also painted many mountain landscapes and seascapes. He was very attracted to (architectural) masterpieces from a historical or artistic point of view, as he felt a true adoration for the great architects of history (also contemporary ones), but he also liked to reproduce popular architectural artistic expressions in his works, the historic neighborhoods and the aesthetically attractive or picturesque towns, old streets or corners that made a good clash with any city. He especially enjoyed painting from life, planting his small easel and his paint box in front of the monument or places that he wanted to immortalize. In cases where it was not possible, since there were few weeks in which he could enjoy vacations each year, he went out to paint in the streets of Barcelona. Either he painted from memory, or very often, from some previous sketch (in his free time he never went out without taking a drawing pad and a few pencils with him). He very exceptionally created a work from a photograph, slide, postcard or copied from a previously existing work by another artist. His style, with watercolors of very vivid colors that formed an overwhelming realism, with a great sense of perspective and a true clinical eye to choose the ideal point of view in each case, and drawings with great attention to detail in which he knew how to highlight the element most important in each scene, allowed him to create a technically impeccable and even impressive work (a friend of his, a renowned architect in Barcelona, once confessed to me that “he had never met anyone who drew so well”), he did not evolve the most. minimum over the years. The personal circumstances or the political or socioeconomic context in which she had to live that marked her life did not influence her work, except, obviously, her place of residence, since this gave her access to some places or others, some landscapes or others, some monuments or others. It cannot be said that she had "stages" or "epochs." Works made thirty years apart could pass as totally contemporary. But always with a strong personality, unique, different from any other artist.
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| Angel Barco c. 1988 |
Although he dedicated his life (during his free time) to creating works of art, he never wanted to hold any exhibition or show his works to the public. And much less did he think of trying to sell them, although during his lifetime I know that he received many offers. Almost no one, outside of his family and some of his friends, was able to see any of his works. He considered that he was an architect, that he made a living with architecture, and that that (drawing and painting) was a simple hobby and that he created art for himself, for pure pleasure and because it was precisely that rapid creative process that which gave him the greatest satisfaction he knew. In all of his works he applied a fixative and stored them in folders, classifying most by the places and years in which they were created. But he did not create any catalogue, classification or list of his works, even if it was partial. Since all the works were on small-format paper, in a single folder he could have dozens and dozens. In a filing cabinet, about a hundred. And he left no less than fifty filing cabinets and folders filled to the brim. And once a work was finished and archived, he would forget about it, he would never see it again, nor would he ever show it to anyone. And much less did he retouch it or make a new version. A few, always at his discretion, he had them framed, hanging them on the walls of his house. There are a few that can be counted on the fingers of one hand (and there would be fingers left over). He gave them to a friend or co-worker. I am of the opinion that the art world has lost a lot not only with his death, but with his refusal to exhibit his production.
